Beixing, Countermeasures Research Office.
At the rules response meeting, people were offering suggestions one after another.
The content was largely similar, the core being to strictly prohibit private duels while maintaining the Ascendants' Mind Power without depletion.
After listening for a while, the person in charge, Gao Liangwei, set the tone for dealing with this rule:
"The Mind Power of Ascendants is extremely precious. Even those who are relatively weaker, we must try our best to ensure their Mind Power Upper Limit does not decrease. What we, the authorities, need to do is reassure these Ascendants, letting them know that even if they don't forfeit, they won't be attacked and plundered by stronger individuals."
Everyone nodded in agreement, voicing their approval.
"This shouldn't be too difficult for our Beixing. The information of the vast majority of Ascendants is registered in the system, and almost all of them are assigned fixed shelters or other residences, making them relatively controllable."
"Indeed. Combined with the city-wide surveillance work, if any Ascendant dares to rely on their superior strength to kill and plunder others' points, the mobile teams under the Research Office can be rapidly deployed to arrest and prosecute them."
"Under such strict orders, I think only a very few who can't see the bigger picture would risk it. To commit a serious murder charge for an uncertain ranking reward is something no clear-headed person would ever do."
With Beixing's powerful official control over society, this rule was destined not to cause much chaos.
But this rule had two sides; absolute pursuit of stability meant withdrawing from the competition.
Understanding this point, Han Qiu spoke up: "Although we can protect the majority through strong official suppression, this will also cause our nation's strong individuals to lose the opportunity to compete for the ranking rewards. I believe everyone can see this, right?"
"The ranking reward itself is a trap set by the Fire Thief to lure people into killing each other," a scholar said with displeasure. "Can't Academician Han see that?"
Han Qiu smiled. "Heh, all I see is that the Fire Thief's goal is to screen for the strongest among humanity. And if our country withdraws from the competition, it means handing the opportunity to grow stronger to the Ascendants of other nations."
"The entire human race is already standing on the edge of a cliff. Is it really necessary to distinguish between our country and others at this point?" someone asked, feeling very puzzled.
Gao Liangwei interjected at this moment: "As long as the concept of the nation exists for even one more day, the distinction between our country and others is necessary."
"..."
"Academician Han, what is your proposal?"
Han Qiu looked towards the female representative from the entertainment field present. "I actually have an idea inspired by the show 'Battle of the Ascendants'."
Everyone present was intelligent and immediately understood his meaning upon hearing this.
"You want the Ascendants to fight to the death in single combat?" Zhang Minglu blurted out.
The variety show "Battle of the Ascendants" is currently in its third season, with each season achieving massive popularity.
The reason for its popularity lies in the fact that the method for contestants to advance in the show is the simplest and most direct: combat. The battles between these powerful Ascendants are extremely spectacular, something ordinary people rarely get a chance to see.
But strictly speaking, the fights in the show are sparring matches, stopping at the appropriate point. People might get injured, but no lives are lost.
Under this current rule, the only way to obtain points is to kill other "Contestants," turning sparring into a fight to the death.
"Correct." Han Qiu nodded.
The room immediately buzzed with discussion.
Without another word, Zhang Minglu stood up abruptly to state his position: "I firmly oppose this!"
Gao Liangwei's expression didn't reveal which side he supported as he calmly said, "Dr. Zhang, state your reasons for opposition."
"The reason is simple! If we hold this kind of deathmatch tournament, far too many Ascendants will die. Moreover, those daring to participate would be the strong ones. Having the strong kill each other off is equivalent to us digging up our own foundation!"
"Dr. Zhang is right! How many people would die?"
"It's practically like breeding gu insects..."
"Doing this indeed has major problems. Moreover, encouraging our citizens to kill each other would only tarnish our official image."
Those supporting Zhang Minglu voiced their agreement one after another. Others, even if silent, mostly nodded frequently.
Zhang Minglu looked at Han Qiu. "Academician Han, I don't know if you've heard of an ancient method for selecting warriors. They would lock all the warriors of a tribe together and have them fight each other. The last one alive was the strongest warrior..."
"You want to say this method is wrong," Han Qiu interrupted Zhang Minglu. "Because the combined strength of those warriors who killed each other could easily defeat that strongest warrior. Right?"
"Exactly."
"No, you are wrong."
Zhang Minglu frowned, waiting for Han Qiu's explanation.
Han Qiu slowly said, "Several ordinary warriors joining forces might defeat one strongest warrior, but they are, after all, ordinary mortals. But are Ascendants ordinary mortals?"
"Dr. Zhang, your duty is to screen and cultivate Ascendants. I believe you understand the disparity in strength between Ascendants better than anyone.
Do you think ten ordinary Ascendants joining forces could threaten the strongest Ascendant? I'm afraid not only could they not threaten him, but they'd be lucky to withstand a single move...
Let me give a recent example: the powerful Ascendant belonging to our nation, 'Shadow.' Many people saw the footage of him fighting dozens of parasitized form Ascendants alone at the Landing Site.
Those parasitized forms, enhanced by spores, were considerably stronger than human Ascendants under equivalent conditions. And what was the result? 'Shadow' almost single-handedly completely suppressed and effectively annihilated them all."
Han Qiu paused before concluding, "I boldly judge that in the future, the gap in strength between top-tier Ascendants and ordinary Ascendants might be even greater than the gap between humans and dogs. Since the future stage belongs to those powerful individuals, is it right or wrong for us now, in order to protect the weak and for the sake of not wanting to lose more lives and save face, to give up on promoting top-tier powerhouses?"
The atmosphere in the office momentarily froze. Those who had firmly stood with Zhang Minglu began to waver after hearing Han Qiu's words.
Yes, it's already apparent now that the combined strength of a hundred ordinary Ascendants cannot match that of one top-tier Ascendant.
This isn't just reflected in 'Shadow.' On the front-line battlefield in the Black Flag Country, Adam of the Suroma Empire, Bai Xuewu of Beixing, and others have all demonstrated formidable combat power capable of taking on a hundred, something ordinary Ascendants can't hope to match.
If one gu king could truly kill all the other gu insects, then whether to sacrifice these insects to cultivate it requires careful consideration.
"...Indeed, the gap between Ascendants is enormous. Han Qiu, your words may have merit, but I still firmly oppose this. Other countries can do this kind of thing, but our Beixing absolutely cannot!" Zhang Minglu's expression was resolute, unmoved.
"Heh... Dr. Zhang is a good person, I can see that. A strong sense of morality is also a good thing. It's just that in the face of survival, everything must yield." As Han Qiu spoke, he looked towards Gao Liangwei, who had remained silent all along.
"This is a difficult choice. Please consider it carefully, person in charge."
Everyone's gaze focused on Gao Liangwei. Just as he was about to speak, someone knocked on the door and entered to deliver an urgent report.
"Report! The Administrator of Ascendant Home has posted a thread selling hidden information about the rule!"
...
Ascendant Home, The Administrator's Domain section.
This section, where only the Administrator has the authority to post, saw a new thread published after many days of silence.
《Selling Hidden Intelligence Related to the Sixteenth Doomsday Rule》
Details: Intelligence price 500,000 Ascension Coins. Not disclosed immediately. Unified disclosure in 1 hour.
As soon as the thread appeared, countless users with special notifications rushed to "pay their respects" and leave comments.
"It's the long-unseen Administrator! Caught!"
"Wow, the intel price rose to five hundred thousand? I remember it was two hundred thousand last time, right? An increase of three hundred thousand at once?!"
"It seems the Administrator is short on Ascension Coins. That can't be, right? The previous sales should have totaled several million."
"Is it because too few people bought last time? Does the Administrator feel it's a loss?"
"Possibly! After the establishment of the Human Consortium, all member states can buy one copy and share it amongst themselves. There's no need for each country to buy their own copy separately like before. That drastically reduces the demand."
"I think maybe the Administrator isn't a single person behind the scenes, but a large organization. If they need to support a large organization, dividing several million Ascension Coins indeed isn't that much."
"Freeloader in position, waiting for the official purchase and disclosure!"
"I'll sit at the same table as the person above."
Since the Administrator account hadn't appeared much on the forum recently, its appearance and posting this time caused quite a stir.
The officials of various countries and the people in large organizations responsible for monitoring him naturally reported it immediately. As for the decision-makers, facing the three hundred thousand coin price hike, their response was still one word: buy.
In this purely seller's market, unless the Administrator raised the price to an utterly outrageous level, even if it's somewhat higher, they still have to buy it.
Moreover, the rule had just been released an hour ago. There were still two hours to consider whether to discard the challenge tournament invitation and abandon this rule. The Administrator posting now, saying the message would be sent in an hour, meant gaining an extra hour of decision-making time.
Buyers quickly contacted the Administrator via the private message account to complete payment.
At this moment, Guan Tong, located within the Xisiya Empire's administration building, counted the number of buyers: eight in total. This indicated that outside the Human Consortium, there existed seven financially powerful organizations.
No... not necessarily.
It's possible that within the Human Consortium, while they claim to share, powerful nations might secretly buy a separate copy themselves to ensure information reliability and avoid the possibility of the purchasing party secretly modifying it.
Besides them, Guan Tong felt that the parasitized forms and the Fire Thief Worship Cult might also buy a copy. As for other large organizations, he didn't know much about them.
Of course, for him, who bought it was all the same, as long as they paid.
"Five hundred thousand per copy, eight copies is four million. Added to my original over four million, that's over eight million total. That's enough for me."
Guan Tong's significant price hike this time was for two reasons. First, judging from the last sales situation, the number of buyers had decreased; the "high volume" in "low margin, high volume" was gone.
Second, he had already decided to spend Ascension Coins to hire other Ascendants to transfer Mind Power to him.
He needed to stockpile a massive amount of Mind Power to enhance his strength and continue developing his [Wordless Book], which would inevitably require massive expenditures of Ascension Coins.
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